Giant retirement community clears first hurdleBy Edward F. Maroney
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The planning board has endorsed a conceptual plan for a half-million-plus-square-foot continuing care retirement community to be built on 25 acres in Independence Park.The board's action Monday was the first affirmative vote needed by the applicant, the Lyndon P. Lorusso Charitable Foundation. The next, a zoning change under the brand-new Senior Continuing Care Retirement Community Overlay District, will be sought from the town council. If that goes well, the proposal will be back before the planning board, in much greater detail, for a special permit.The Village at Barnstable, off Independence Drive and Communication Way, would feature a two-story common building with dining and recreation facilities. It would be surrounded by and connected to four three- to four-story buildings with independent living units, one two-story assisted living building, and a one-story skilled care nursing facility.There would be 170 one-bed and 170 two-bed independent living units, 32 one-bed and eight two-bed assisted living units, and 41 nursing beds for a total of 421 units and 599 beds.Of the 584 parking spaces required, 326 will be under the buildings.Ed Pesce of Pesce Engineering & Associates of Plymouth told the planning board he had spoken that day with Barnstable Fire Chief Robert Crosby and set up a longer meeting to review the project. Although preliminary work has been going for more than two years, many details will not be defined until the town council's review.Mark Thompson of Independence Park assured the board that there is a sufficient sewer reserve to meet the demand of the anticipated number of residents. "All the pipes are there," Pesce added.Planning board member Pat Princi asked about the site's proximity to the Shepley company's hilltop facility, prompting Thompson to assure him that the two Shepley buildings nearest the planned community are warehouses which see primarily forklift traffic.Replying to interim growth management director Patty Daley, Pesci said he's walked the property and seen no "jurisdictional" wetlands as the land is part of the stony glacial moraine.The town council and the planning board will hold a joint hearing on the proposal Thursday, Dec. 6, at town hall.